8 THE MAGAZINE OF HORTICULTURE. 



don, that plant culture has arrived at such perfection through- 

 out Great Britain. A few years since the exhibitions were 

 made up of a miscellaneous collection of plants, without 

 much regard to their individual beauty ; now the latter is 

 the principal feature, and without it a collection would attract 

 scarcely any notice whatever. Until, therefore, liberal pre- 

 miums are offered, we shall in vain look for any permanent 

 improvement in these exhibitions of our Horticultural Asso- 

 ciations. 



The improvement in the production of fine varieties of 

 many of our popular flowers, has now become so great that 

 we are no longer dependent on importations from abroad. 

 This is a desirable feature in Floricultural art. The Pan- 

 sy, the Verbena, the Petunia, the Picotee, the Phlox, the 

 Camellia, the Azalea, and many other florists' flowers, have 

 received some of their finest additions through the labors of 

 our enterprising cultivators. Our climate is far more favora- 

 ble to the production of seed than that of Great Britain, and 

 with the same attention which the English cultivators have 

 given to the subject, we can enrich our collections without 

 resorting to importation, always uncertain in its results. In 

 our earlier volumes we have given several papers on the pro- 

 duction of seedlings by artificial impregnation, and urged the 

 attention of cultivators to this subject ; and in our last vol- 

 ume, (p. 249,) still further to render this process familiar, we 

 have copied the observations of an English writer, giving the 

 minute details for the guidance of those who have not de- 

 voted much attention to it. 



The new plants which have been added the last year, 

 though not numerous, embrace many fine things. A few 

 of the more prominent, are Achimenes chirita. Gloxinias, of 

 several varieties ; /Salvia Lilleana, Aphelandra Leopoldw, 

 and squarrosa citrina, Cissus discolor, Hexacentris mysoren- 

 sis, Philesia buxifolia, Skimmia japonica, Passiflora Decaisnes- 

 iana, Lopezia macrophylla, Ardisia crenulata, with white 

 fruit ; Begonm Xanthina; Fuchsias, Glory of England, Lady 

 Franklin, &c., &c. ; the principal portion of which will be 

 found enumerated or described under our Floricultural Notes 

 for the year. 



